Canadian and Australian special forces, U.S. military conduct live fire exercise involving F-35s, Super Hornets, drones

Canadian special forces helped call in airstrikes and other support fire during a recent exercise in California. In this file photo, Canadian special forces call in airstrikes against ISIL targets in Iraq. CANSOFCOM photo.CANSOFCOM, DND

Canadian special forces, along with their counterparts from Australia as well as U.S. military took part in live-fire joint exercise in California involving aircraft, drones and a U.S. Navy cruiser.

The second annual Phoenix Fire allowed for what the U.S. military is calling a realistic warfighting exercise providing Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) the ability to control a multitude of assets providing air-to-surface and surface-to-surface close air support (CAS) fires.

The exercise used the U.S. Navy’s Southern California Offshore Range.

Participants included JTACs from the 116th ASOS, 6th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company (ANGLICO), Canadian Special Operations Forces (CANSOF), Special Operations Command Australia (AUSOF), and 60MM mortars from the 1st Marine Logistics Group, according to a new report of the event by Lieutenant Commander Rebekah Hall , who is with the public affairs branch at Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) Weapons School Pacific. The training ended Sept. 22.